


affection.

by djcotrona



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: F/M, ends with a moment post season 3, starts with a flashback to their mexican honeymoon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 09:22:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8484007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/djcotrona/pseuds/djcotrona
Summary: "affection" by cigarettes after sex





	

**Author's Note:**

> "affection" by cigarettes after sex

_i know that you say i get mean when i’m drinking_

_but then again sometimes i get really sweet_

Two months after they left the Twister, they found themselves holed up in a motel, this one was a little nicer than the others. There was promise of a pool, but when they arrived they found it lacked water. The weather was hot, had been all day, and the air conditioner was broken.

Kate lounged outside on the balcony of their second-floor room. The air was humid, they must have been close to the seaside As Kate began to feel moisture form on her chest, she let her mind wander, let it travel to a beach she'd been to once as a kid. She sipped on her Coke, noting that it tasted much better from a glass. The cold drink eased her discomfort. She placed her head back as she felt herself disassociating from the present moment, the agonizing weather, she swore she could almost feel ocean water touch her bare feet before she was interrupted by a frustrated groan that came from the motel room.

Seth was situated in front of the air conditioner; he’d been trying to fix it for the past two hours.

“Nothing?” 

Seth shook his head, placed the makeshift tools down. He dragged himself towards the fridge, took out a cold beer and brought the bottle to his lips as he slumped down on the edge of the bed. 

Kate looked down at the pool and frowned at the lack of water. The young man that worked the front desk had explained to her that the pool’s filter had broken, something about a kid stuffing water toys into it. They were forced to replace the entire system. 

She sighed and finished off the last drop of Coke, placed the empty glass at her feet, stood up from the plastic chair and made her way into their temporary home. “I’m going to take a bath,” she said, picking up her pajamas on her way to the bathroom. 

Seth shot a quizzical look at her back, “again?”

“Yes, again.” She said in annoyance as she shut the door behind her. The question was stupid. Of course she was going to take another bath. It was hot and Seth had promised her a pool and she didn’t get one. She was going to have to make with what she had. 

Inside, Kate stripped down to her undergarments as she ran her bath. She let her fingers touch the running cold water, closing her eyes, instantly feeling soothed.

Outside, Seth was rummaging through the fridge, searching for another beer, finding only one left and noting they were both out of food and water. He popped open his last bottle and took a long swig of his beverage. The stolen cash on top of the fridge was placed into his slacks’ right pocket, his gun nudged between his pants and the small of his back. With the mouth of the bottle, he knocked on the bathroom door. “I’m going down to the lobby to get some provisions. You want another Coke?” 

The knock startled Kate. “Please,” she said, soon as she composed herself. Seth put his vest on, over his wife-beater to conceal his gun in time with her response. As Kate rid herself of the remaining garments, she heard the motel room’s door shut. Once situated inside of the bathtub, she let her muscles relax and soon dozed off. 

Downstairs in the lobby, Seth stocked up on provisions. He grabbed his beer, Kate’s Coke, and pre-packaged sandwiches. Without thought, he grabbed a pint of strawberry cheesecake ice-cream, Kate’s favorite. At the cash register, he asked for the bottle of whiskey behind the cashier. He paid. 

Upstairs in the bathtub, Kate dreamt of a beach. Seth was right next to her. They were having a sad conversation, one they had shared a few weeks back after Seth had tried to drink himself to sleep, but ultimately remained restless.

Unlike their current room, they had two beds that time. The window had been opened, another air conditioner broken. They spoke to each other in whispers, confessed things they’d never told anyone, all in hushed tones so the world outside couldn’t hear. 

“I don’t feel alone when I’m with you.”

“Sometimes I do.” A pause. “Sometimes I feel like I never left that place, the labyrinth.”

Seth didn’t respond to her last confession, but he understood. 

His own mind was a labyrinth. Deep down, he knew of his sexual desires for the girl that drove off into the unknown with him. He did his drugs for his lost brother, but he drank for Kate. 

He fed himself a false narrative of who Kate was. Something pure, something immaculate, something holy. Just a little girl. He was trapped in a mental war of morality. 

He fed himself a false narrative of who he was. Someone who hadn’t ruined this girl’s life, often put the blame on everyone but himself, but subconsciously he knew exactly who he was. The thoughts of his affection for Kate consumed him and the guilt racked him, so he drank. 

Seth professed one last thing before sleep finally overtook him. “I don’t want you to leave me.”

Kate always figured he would never remember those conversations come morning light. 

She hadn’t heard the motel room door open, nor Seth’s fumbling around with his beers outside of the bathroom door. It was the sound of static, followed by soft music that woke her. She wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion, they didn’t have a TV. Kate looked down at her hands, unsure of how long she’d been in the bathtub, but it couldn’t have been all that long, her fingers were barely starting to become pruney. 

While the water drained, she slipped on her pajama shorts and camisole.

The motel lamp in the room was dim, it didn’t properly light their room, the sun’s luminescence was their main source of light. It was nearly gone when she stepped out of the bathroom, but the open balcony doors allowed the room to be lit up with a faded orange glow. She turned to Seth, who sat in a green, corduroy armchair, seemingly drunk. He had that goofy smile he got when he’s wasted or when he’s proud of himself. This time, he smiled because of both. Kate averted her gaze to the table next to him and there it was, the source of the music, a small yellow radio. 

He beamed up at her, “Guy at the front desk was about to throw it out,” It’d been two weeks without any means of entertainment. TV’s were always broken and their stolen car was ironically robbed of a radio. “But I knew I could fix it.” He tinkered with the antenna until it was positioned at just the right angle, the music becoming clearer. 

Kate grinned, pulled out a chair after Seth opened her Coke and then they both heard a miracle. A gentle sputtering from across the room, they both turned to look at the air conditioner. Cold air slowly began to fill the room as Seth and Kate drank. Kate asked for some whiskey and Seth obliged, mixing it with her Coke. Eventually, it was just whiskey that she swallowed. 

Kate hiccupped and Seth laughed, made a joke about it all being sacrilegious. “You’re drunk.”

She made a funny face at him. “Only a little bit.” She raised her thumb and index finger, bringing them close together, but leaving some space in between them. “Just a little,” she said again. She began to dig into her ice cream. 

The sun painted the room a dark shade of orange as it set and the motel’s sign flickered on just outside their room. The stream of the red glow mixed with the orange and the dark shadows the sun couldn’t reach. Seemed metaphorical, the way the room was lit that is, dark in some corners and light in others. 

Seth smiled at Kate, his eyes glazed with drunkenness and Kate giggled. His body relaxed at the sound of it. These moments were rare, Seth at ease and Kate genuinely happy in his company. Seth thought he wouldn’t have minded being sober in that moment, he'd be able to take her all in. For a moment, their minds were occupied with only the thought of each other. For a moment, they were in a state of bliss. They were happy. 

A slower song began to play. 

Kate didn’t feel as suffocated by the heat any longer with the sun almost gone. The air remained humid, but the air conditioner helped. She stood up to shut the balcony’s double doors, whiskey in hand, but stopped herself as soon as she felt the breeze outside. 

Seth noticed her abrupt stop. “What are you doing?” 

Kate didn’t know what the man on the radio was singing, but she thought the guitar was pretty. She stepped out onto the balcony, closed her eyes and began to dance. She gave a small laugh at his question, he had asked her the same thing on the day they met. She had been trying to get away from him, but right now she couldn’t even fathom the thought of being anywhere else without him.

The outside lights illuminated Kate, they cast shadows of her silhouette as she swayed her hips back and forth and they danced on Seth’s face. She spilled some of her whiskey, splashing the alcohol on her feet, but she didn’t care and he loved that she didn’t care. She giggled. 

Seth’s breath hitched at the sight. He shifted in his seat to get a better look at her. He brought the beer up to his lips, suddenly feeling his mouth dry.

_my attention’s on you_

_even if it’s not what you need_

Kate could feel his gaze burning into her. She stopped dancing and looked at him. She slowly walked towards him until she stood between his legs. Seth looked up at her, not sure of what she would do next. Kate looked at him, at his eyes, a mix of greens and browns. They were so beautiful, she thought. Seth reached out to grab her hip tentatively, lifting her shirt, exposing her hip.

And then she was kissing him. Slowly, tenderly. And he was kissing her. Feverishly, hungrily. 

The sun was gone. They were in the dark. 

The entire afternoon, they both searched for release from the heat, only to find pleasure in it through each other’s bodies. Kate straddled his lap, both hands on his shoulders to steady her impaired self. Seth lifted her top even further, his large hands gripped her bare waist tightly. He kissed her cheek, her jaw, her throat and she let out small pants and sighs that made him hard. He pushed her even closer to him and she rolled her hips once, he groaned in response. His lips made contact with her necklace and he pulled away from her. He looked down at her face. She was breathless, her hair a mess, cheeks flushed, her lips wet from their kiss. Seth traced them with his thumb, he so desperately wanted his name to escape those lips as he fucked her on this chair. 

He let out a barely audible, “fuck.” 

A fucking bastard. 

He immediately let her go, gently easing her off him, couldn’t even look at her face as he did so. He stumbled towards their shared bed. He was nauseous and now he knew it wasn’t because of the alcohol. Kate stood there and stared at his figure until she heard his soft snores. She let out a shaky breath. Another moment he wouldn’t remember. She went to bed.

_so what does it mean if i tell you to go fuck yourself_

_or if i say that you’re beautiful to me_

But he _did_ remember.

Seth thought about that day a lot. Not just the kiss, but him getting to witness the genuine joy Kate felt that hot afternoon. Some nights, he let his mind wander. He wondered if things would have turned out differently had he not left her alone in Mexico. He dreamt of him taking her to a beach.

He hated himself, he tried to protect her from the moment they met. He was selfish, she’d become a part of him and he didn’t want to let her go yet he pushed her even further away after that kiss, told himself it was for her own good, tried to convince himself that he wasn’t a monster, but he knew it was him that hurt her the most. 

The months after getting Kate back, he wondered if he would ever see her smile again. 

The months after she returned, Kate was desperate to find familiarity. 

She found it in Seth’s bed.

In a moment of vulnerability, she shook a sleeping Seth late at night. He turned from his side blinked up at her as she asked him if she could sleep with him. “Like old times,” she said. He was half-awake and disoriented, he thought they were back in their first motel room, the first time she shook him awake. For a fraction of a moment, he thought he never left her, but then he caught glimpse of her red hair and reality hit him like a speeding semi. 

He moved aside, grabbed a hold of her waist, wrapped his tatted arm around it and pulled her closer to his body. They pretended like none of it had happened, like they were still in their Mexican honeymoon. 

It became routine, desperately seeking for each other late at night. “Nightmares,” she claimed. Seth never admitted it, but he had them too. 

Seth’s bedroom window had a clear view of the starless night. She expressed how much she hated it, the lack of stars that is. It made her feel alone, the way the Texas city lights blotted out the stars. “When she was inside of me, all I could see was darkness, like when we used to drive through the desert at night and everything around us seemed like an abyss.” Seth turned her away from the window, made her face him so she wouldn’t look at the sky. “I’m here. I’ll never leave you.”

_sometimes we talk all night long, we don’t shut up_

_and when it’s late we’ll say we’re still wide awake_

There was a bar near their place. Richie claimed they had the best horchata and Scott praised their great set list in their jukebox so Seth took her there on a night where Kate couldn’t rest. They took a seat at the booth and Seth ordered their drinks and nachos. Sure enough, it was the best horchata Kate had ever tasted.

They talked for what seemed like hours, probably was. He tried to make her laugh, told her stories of his childhood, filled in the six months he spent as an underling, recounted memories of their time together in Mexico, only the good ones, of course. He usually never got more than just a sad small smile and tonight was no different. 

Seth sipped on a soda, didn’t want to get drunk. Soon, Kate began to look sleepy. She tried to stifle a yawn and failed. Seth asked if she wanted to go home. She was ready for bed, she was in her pajama shorts but she shook her head, said “one more drink.” She stood up to get more horchata. Seth stood up and walked towards the jukebox. He’d never heard most of the songs, but the bar was too quiet, the couples that occupied the bar had long since trickled out and all that remained was just lonely, old men sipping on their sixth beers, probably thinking of all the mistakes they made that led them to this very place. So, he put in a quarter and pressed a letter and a number. 

The guitar played and a man sang and Seth realized it was the song Kate danced to that night all those months ago. He turned to look for her at the bar only to find her in the middle of the room, back towards him, dancing. He circumnavigated the bar to face her and he saw that she was smiling, eyes closed. The neon lights coming from the arcade games lit up her body. Kate opened her eyes to meet Seth’s and they both felt like they were home again.

_it's affection always_

_you’re gonna see it someday_


End file.
